Like about 65 percent of all those who work for [REDACTED] the foreign affairs department of the Washington DC area's largest employer, I've been furloughed.
Oh, no! What does that mean exactly? Well, I've been banished from the office, and from remote work, and even instructed not to use my official cell phone except to check for more instructions.
This must be what retirement will be like, except for the part about not being paid. My impression so far is that I can live with it.
In fact, this preview of My Golden Years has revived an earlier interest in making use of that retirement annuity lifetime federal fellowship to do something academic, such as researching and maybe even publishing something about a few pet topics.
For instance, public security measures can be studied as artifacts of material culture. Haven't you ever thought that anti-ram barriers in the city landscape might well unintentionally reveal something about our society and how it has changed over time?
But all that lies in the future! I have a late relative who worked at DOS for over 50 years, and happily so. I don't plan to break her record, although I now see myself coming rather close.
I say to you: don't despair, live frugally while we wait out the shutdown and, as 95-year old Clint Eastwood reminds us, the secret to a long life is to not let the old man in.
14 comments:
I hope it works out.
As the great P J O'Rourke would say " and the country was safe for 2 days+
Thanks very much.
50+ years that's impressive, either he needed something to do or needed the money.
She was hired as a teenager during WWII and retired after 52 or 53 years, divorced, and must not have needed the income after the first 30 or so years since she was in the old civil service system and maxed out her pension around that point. It was just the way she chose to spend her life, and she genuinely seemed to like going to work. She was from Arlington VA, and the G was her hometown industry. I suspect there are quite a few like her.
Apparently I have a x account. Technology and James a marriage NOT made in heaven!
I love X! Primary sourcing and immediate news, 99%-free speech, and it pisses off all the right people.
Politically we are hurtling to a decision.
X is still magic to me!
The purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk has got to be one of the very most consequential acts of our time. Defund the Thought Police!
It went after one of the pillars of their strength.
The Dems think the electorate is stupid, it's not.
The free and two-way flow of social media enables populist politics like nothing else. The old pillars won't be missed.
Some will miss them, but not anyone to worry about.
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